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Women's NCAA Indoor Distance Preview

Rather than have four divide our previews into four separate articles, rankings guru and now world traveler Isaac Wood breaks down the women's middle-distance and distance action all at once.Women's 800-meters Final (March 15th @ 7:30pm MT)

I actually feel bad saying this because it sounds so myopic, but this race is absolutely Laura Roesler's to lose. She is above and away the most talented 800-meter runner in the NCAA and barring a tragedy, she'll win this race.

Now with that being said, I do have a few dark horse picks that, if Roesler has the worst race of her life, could sneak up and get the "W." I like Megan Malasarte of Georgia, who was an NCAA Outdoor qualifier last year. I like the youth of Sabrina Southerland of Georgetown, too. She might just be so fresh to the NCAA scene that she runs out of her mind and PRs big.

This is the Battle of the Sunshine State, since the winner is most likely going to come from someone from a school in Florida. Colleen Quigley and Linden Hall of Florida State are about as tough as they come. Both of them have had great progressions since last outdoor, where they Quigley was 2nd in the 3k steeple and Hall made the 1500-meter final.
Cory McGee of Florida is coming off of a summer of racing for the USA as she made the 1500-meter for Moscow.

Beyond these three, it is a toss up to who else can challenge them. Carly Hamilton of Georgia, Leah O'Connor of Michigan State, Stephanie Brown of Arkansas, Allison Peare of Kentucky (former Sleeper of the Week), Shelby Houlihan of Arizona State may not have the fastest seed time of the bunch, but will all certainly be in the mix. It's going to be crazy figuring out who can make it through the heats, but I do like Quigley's chances as herendurance will help her through the tough heats and cash in the check of all her hard work to the get the Mile win in Albuquerque.

Abbey D'Agostino. Enough said. The only other person I see challenging her in this race, and it's because of the altitude factor, is Emma Bates of Boise State. The little altitude that she does train at up in Boise will help her give D'Agostino the biggest challenge in the 3,000-meters thus far this year.

Beyond D'Agostino, I do like Eli Kirk of UAB quite a bit. She looked so smooth and under control in her 5k at the Husky Classic and I wouldn't be surprised to watch her challenge Abbey for quite a while up front and hold on for the rest of the race.

Hannah Walker of Florida State will push up front for the first part of the race, per usual, and she will also be in the mix to challenge Kirk and Emily Sisson of Providence for the runner up position.